Ep. 36: The Harlem Globetrotters, Creating Smiles + Memories

[00:00:00] Mall of America, for more than 30 years it has been a retail leader and an international destination and it remains the largest mall in the U.S. Not to mention it welcomes millions of guests from around the world. It's huge, but it's also so much more. In this podcast,

[00:00:16] you're going to hear the real stories of how it started and why it continues to thrive. You'll hear about challenges we faced along the way and what you can learn from them. We will feature guests and experts from all walks of life and business

[00:00:28] and along the way you'll laugh, learn and maybe even change the way you look at things. So if you're a fan of the mall, a brand new visitor, an entrepreneur or a dreamer, prepare to dive deep into so much more. This podcast is presented by

[00:00:42] the Bloomington Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of So Much More, a Mall of America podcast. My name is Dan Jasper and I am your host today along with my co-host and colleague Lauren

[00:00:56] Andrew Holm. Hi Lauren, how are you today? Hi, great. How are you? We'll get to this in a little bit but Lauren has a bit of a background with our guest today so I'm excited to hear her story and we're really excited to have

[00:01:08] two very special guests with us today. They are Joey Hotrod De La Rosa and Julian Zeus McClurken and they are with the world famous Harlan Globetrotters. Joey was born to be a Harlan Globetrotter. The seven foot one forward Bronx native is a force on the court

[00:01:27] throwing up sky high hook shots with ease. The former St. John's D1 recruit has had dreamed of being a Globetrotter since he was nine years old when the team stopped by his elementary school for an inspiring demonstration. Julian is one of the most

[00:01:42] decorated athletes on the Harlem Globetrotters roster. Sorry, we make mistakes here don't we? He holds six Guinness World Record titles. Zeus, I know you didn't want me to call you by your but I'm going to say Zeus for

[00:01:57] this one if that's right set the mark for the most basketball slam dunks in one minute with 16, the most bounced three pointers in one minute with five and the most behind the back three pointers with three baskets made. He is also known for his fun

[00:02:13] personality and crazy trick shots everywhere from places like Ohio State to yes he has done it on more than one occasion here at Mall of America. Some crazy ones we're going to talk about which are so much

[00:02:25] fun and they've all been featured on ESPN as well. So a warm Mall of America in Minnesota welcome to our two guests today. Thank you Julian, thank you Joey for being with us today. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Yeah it's going to be

[00:02:38] fun so first we're going to start with how did you become inspired and get into basketball and how did you become a member of the Globetrotters we'll start with you Joey. Okay uh the Harlem Globetrotters came to my school

[00:02:51] on 180th Street in the Bronx in New York City and they was doing the same exact trick that we go out there and do today and I was like wow these guys are truly amazing. Later that day I kept thinking about it kept

[00:03:04] thinking about it. I went to my mom, I went to my dad, I said mom dad or you all who I'm going to say that today I'm going to be a basketball player. My mom was like you're going to be a basketball player? I said yeah I'm going

[00:03:13] to play basketball. I saw these guys come into PS9 they had a ball red, white and blue they was doing tricks. I kept thinking about it kept thinking about it. I said mom they inspired me to play the game of basketball.

[00:03:26] From there on I went and made my first fourth grade basketball team at PS9 where later on I went to Mount Red Academy which is the number one high school in the country for basketball where I had the chance to

[00:03:37] get seen and recruited by a whole bunch of division ones where I started my career at Florida International and played for head coach Isaiah Thomas and then I transferred to St. John's University where I played for

[00:03:47] Phenomahunum coach Steve Lavin who is the number 15 team in the country where I got the opportunity to earn my degree in business a minor in finance. Later on I tried out for two NBA teams and then I played overseas. I played in places like China, Thailand, Malaysia,

[00:04:04] Nicaragua, Republica Dominicana, El Salvador and then I get the phone call. Hey Joey would you want to try out for the Harlem Globetrotters? I looked at my phone I was like man I ain't got time to play today.

[00:04:17] She thought it was a joke. And I thought it was and then I'm like this is my agent calling me. I said yeah why not? I thought about that very first moment when I was nine years old and they came into PS9

[00:04:28] Elementary in the Bronx on 180th Street in New York City and I was like yes I went into trial I did my thing a month later they signed me to a contract. This is my third year with the Harlem Globetrotter

[00:04:39] and I've been with this guy the whole way and it's been an amazing experience. I love it thank you that's an awesome story and to get inspired that young is fantastic. Oh yeah most definitely. Julian how about you what was kind of

[00:04:50] your journey to becoming a Globetrotter? It was very untraditional um I actually wasn't very good in basketball growing up. I didn't make my first basketball team until the 11th grade so I got cut from sixth grade all the way to 10th grade then the summer of

[00:05:03] 10th grade a miracle happened. I drank a lot of milk and I ended up growing five inches over the summer so I was finally tall enough to play but a lot of my coaches and my teammates said the same thing to me they said I

[00:05:14] was too nice they said I smiled too much. I had one guy tell me on the team he said all you ever do is smile and dunk man like that's all you do and

[00:05:22] today I get paid to smile and dunk so it ended up working out for me. I ended up playing college basketball at North Carolina anti-state university in Greensboro North Carolina. I walked on there and after my college career was over I played one season in

[00:05:38] South America in Paraguay or Paraguay. And then a guy called me and said hey you want to play for this team called the Washington Generals and that's the team that famously loses to the Harlem Globetrotters. I had never heard of the Washington

[00:05:54] Generals before so I'm like uh who are they he said don't worry about it man you suck at defense and you want to travel the world so come on and just play. I said all right I'll do it um and that's where I learned about the

[00:06:05] Globetrotters. I fell in love when I first saw the Globetrotters play in person. I had heard about them when I was a kid but I didn't think it was a real team I saw them on Scooby Doo right and I'm like it'd be cool if these guys were

[00:06:18] real you know they had like these superhero abilities on Scooby Doo and I was like but Batman's on Scooby Doo this isn't a real team and when I saw them play I fell in love uh and I wanted to do

[00:06:30] what they did and I was like this this is my calling this is what uh all those hard years of playing basketball got me all the criticism that I got for being the nice guy this is what I was meant to do so eventually that season the Globetrotters

[00:06:44] got tired of me dunking on them and they got me over to a contract and now I've been on the team for 14 seasons. 14 years oh that's fantastic and you have been to Mall of America before oh yeah I'm gonna ask Lauren what

[00:06:56] are your memories of some of the stuff that Julian has done here at the mall before? Yeah it's easily one of the top memories it's I mean five years ago and it feels like it was a

[00:07:06] blink of an eye it was so much fun I remember when I you know we were in our events meeting they said okay the Harlem Globetrotters are coming they're gonna do another trick shot because you had been here in 2016 and

[00:07:16] we're like okay how do we make it bigger and better and we were brainstorming ideas and we're like let's do a trick shot and have them go on the roller coaster and we'll set up a basketball hoop down

[00:07:25] below and they're gonna shoot a basketball into the hoop and we're like okay that sounds really easy right and I remember we were on the roller coaster and it I think there started with like six or seven of us with cameras and

[00:07:36] someone from a radio station was there and one by one people were like I can't ride anymore I can't ride it anymore I'm getting I'm getting motion sick and it had to have taken us you I shouldn't I didn't do anything it was all you 20 something rides

[00:07:50] consecutively and you finally hit that shot and I remember I was so excited I threw my hands up and then I was like I hope I got I hope I got it on camera

[00:07:59] because I was so excited for you it was it was so much fun do you do you remember I mean what was going through your head 20 something rides in and I've shot um over a hundred trick shots around the world right wow

[00:08:13] easily yeah all of America trick shot is my number one most favorite shot I've ever done from the roller coaster everyone asked they're like what was your favorite trick shot it is it's always the roller coaster trick shot um and the number one question we always get is

[00:08:28] how many tries did it take yeah it took about uh 20 tries right but what people don't account for is the time that it took yes because the ride that's the longest roller coaster ride five minutes you missed that shot and me and Lauren are just on

[00:08:44] the train just reflecting like man what you're doing after this mom's about to open huh yeah we're at realistically you think about it like 21 shots is not bad you know for a tough shot like that oh that's pretty good I wish we could have

[00:08:58] you know lined it up a little bit quicker but um Mall of America is very special for me with trick shots um because my very first trick shot that I hit was at the Mall of America right and then years later we came back

[00:09:08] and did the um the orange justice uh orange justice the orange streak roller coaster and we the orange justice is a dance I think yeah I don't know that one you don't want to see me do that one Fortnite kids will know what I'm talking about

[00:09:25] but we we we shot that one and we really hadn't shot a whole bunch of trick shots um since really so it's like those are so memorable those my time here um was just it was so special I have my

[00:09:37] family here yeah as well you know my wife got to see me hit that shot were you on the zipline as well yes a couple years before 200 years before here at Mall of America so cool like and you know I was it like

[00:09:52] everybody from from my trick shots here everybody on the team kind of like pegged me as like the the thrill seeker and the guy who'll do anything you know because you know it was fun it was fun um but

[00:10:03] definitely my most memorable trick shot I tell everyone about it and you know it just was all love every time I come to Minneapolis people reference that and you know it's just a very special place in my heart for it it's fun well thank you for doing that

[00:10:16] appreciate it yeah you know what you both talk about childhood and and and joy and happiness right and that's a lot of what the Harlem Globe Charters brand means to people I will tell you that it was 1968 and I went and saw the globe charters and

[00:10:32] it was Metal Arc Lemon and Curly Neil right and my dad took me to the old Minneapolis Downtown Convention Center whatever it was and I remember seeing them and I wasn't a basketball fan but I left as an eight-year-old going this is so awesome

[00:10:48] and it was so much fun what does that mean to the two of you bringing that joy to families and children who may never play basketball right for for me it's uh I know that I'm out there and I'm making an

[00:11:00] impact I know that when I'm doing my basketball you know the tricks and I do something funny and I bring the ball around my hand I say hey look at the little birdie I know I get that same reaction from the kids I know they're laughing they think

[00:11:15] it's funny they're like look at this guy he's 71 he's talking about a birdie and it's really a basketball but for me it really melts my heart because I like helping people and I know Julian does too

[00:11:26] so for me I like like I said it melts my heart because I like helping people and I like putting a smile on people's face that's awesome I hope you Julian yeah it's important you know a lot of times we're kids first

[00:11:36] introduction to the game of basketball and what I like is that kids get an opportunity to take uh in what we're really putting out is that don't take the game too seriously right I think that's a that's a big error

[00:11:48] that a lot of kids make in this game and they get so disappointed when things don't go their way the ball doesn't always bounce the right direction for you but they see they come out to our game

[00:11:59] and they'll see these guys and girls out there who are out there enjoying themselves having a good time you know they'll see somebody they're nine years old somebody they're 99 years old everybody has the same smile on their face and they're enjoying it and people never forget

[00:12:13] the way that you make them feel right that's why we've been around for the last 98 years because every time you come back it's you're remembering these stories when you went to a game with your parents or with your grandparents you remember

[00:12:23] metal like lemon curly mill hopefully you remember julie and you remember joey hot rodella rosa and you'll come back to a game years later with your family and friends no it's awesome it's one of my favorite memories

[00:12:34] with my dad and you went as a child too did you not I did I went as a child I remember going and not really having a big idea of who the Harlem Globetrotters were and went with my younger sister and my parents I remember going and

[00:12:47] just being like these are larger than life players I mean it was like nothing I'd experienced before and I mean as a kid like you said that makes such a huge impact you remember it it leaves an impression even if you don't

[00:12:58] grow up to play basketball I mean how when you think of the kids and coming to see your shows even if they're inspired by basketball or maybe it's for you know other interests like the arts or they're you know into

[00:13:10] theater or something different what is your advice for them I mean you both talk about how you had a passion for basketball and the Globetrotters inspired you what would you tell other kids that you know about chasing their dreams my my advice for younger kids is always

[00:13:25] be coachable basketball has taught me how to do that because I wasn't the best basketball player I didn't have you know the long history or big basketball basketball acumen like all my other teammates had I had to be the player on the court

[00:13:41] who knew the play to to the tee you know and the coach could always trust me with their playing in their philosophy and I would play a lot of minutes over guys who were probably better basketball players than me

[00:13:52] but because I was coachable and I listened the coach could trust me with his plan he would put me out there I'm talking about I played minutes over guys who had full-ride scholarships and I'm a walk-on player

[00:14:02] right but I tell kids you know that that has taught me so much not just in basketball but in life be coachable in life listen to your parents listen to your teachers adults listen to your bosses because it's free for you to

[00:14:15] listen it costs you zero dollars and a lot of times people just want to know that you heard them I'm married now listen to your wife just listen you don't you don't have to give anything back but just listen it's

[00:14:31] free it's one asset that we have that we can give to anyone so so kids be coachable and listen how about you for joey for me uh just to piggyback off for Julian said I tell him

[00:14:42] to listen as well but I also preach that uh positivity message be positive listen to your parents listen to your teachers because they're the great role models I know growing up I used to look up to my teachers and um

[00:14:55] luckily for me basketball was my passion and it led me to be here I tell kids all the time you don't have to be a basketball player you can be a teacher a police officer a lawyer a musician

[00:15:07] whatever you want to do you can do it just have passion and about it and you know work hard on it and if you do that it'll lead you with just where you need to be at I love that the passion and the optimism and you

[00:15:19] can keep spinning away Julian is spinning the ball on it on his finger something that I'm hoping before the day's over you'll teach me how to do I don't know this cap off his water good job Lauren taught me that no it's true

[00:15:34] and before we continue I just want to for for those who are listening here in the spring of 2024 you are going to be here you are here at Mall of America today for a performance in a kind of meet and

[00:15:43] greet session but on March 30th you will be back in Minneapolis at Target Center doing one of your famous games and guests can come and enjoy you at that performance and they can always check out HarlemGlobetrotters.com for information on dates and

[00:15:59] tickets and everything we want to make sure we get that in there right yeah definitely but I have to ask another question if I can because for those who do get the opportunity to go to one of your games you have the fifth quarter

[00:16:11] what is that all about tell us what that is fifth quarter is an opportunity where you can get up close and personal with your favorite HarlemGlobetrotter Zeus is my name basically at the end of every game right after we hopefully win you get an

[00:16:26] opportunity to get your autograph or take a picture and just you know chop it up with your favorite Globetrotter at the end of every game which is really unrivaled in sports you never really see any other professional

[00:16:37] team give fans that kind of access to come and get your autograph signed because we want to connect with our fans that's what's kept us around for so long is the the connection that we build with our fans oh that's fantastic is this your first time

[00:16:51] Joey to Mall of America this is this is my first time is it well yesterday was my first time okay but I was just walking around but then this is like my real first time like I have people showing me around I

[00:17:03] didn't know that about julie until this morning about the trick shot yeah so are you gonna go on any rides oh i'm 7125 i'm just getting heights so i don't know probably any rides that

[00:17:16] are close to the ground we'll get you on something i don't want to be on a roller coaster i called him yesterday and i was like joey you land he's like yeah i'm at the mall i was like how you doing he's like yo it's dumb big

[00:17:30] yo it is it's crazy like i was i was going to i felt like i was going in circles at one point because i was trying to see every story and then i'll look up and i'll be like impossible i was already here so let me go

[00:17:41] downstairs and try it around so and it's just i'm amazed how big it is it's the biggest mall in the united states of America it is there's no way you can see every store in one day

[00:17:52] i don't think so no it's pretty actually we did the math if you spend 10 minutes in every store it would take you 86 hours 86 something like that yeah i'm not spending 86 hours what is uh what's your favorite i'm going to ask you this

[00:18:09] julie and you've done this so what is your well you've already said your favorite trick shot is our roller coaster what's your next favorite trick shot zipline okay i'll give you a non-mall of america trick shot yeah but how about someplace other

[00:18:23] than here what's your favorite my hometown columbus ohio okay i shot at what's called the horseshoe it's a football stadium where the buck eyes play and we did this trick shot the day before all i had all i knew i was going

[00:18:37] to do is shoot from the top concourse level down to the main level just shoot a trick shot there so the morning of the trick shot eric neimeth calls me and he's like hey we just found out he's our pr god

[00:18:48] he was our pr guy with the globe chargers he said we just found out somebody already did that shot some kids did that he's like you know we can't wear the globe chargers we gotta do something different i was like okay

[00:18:55] cool what you got he said how about this spin the ball on your finger and throw it off while you're spinning it i was like huh what now he said can you do it i said yeah come on man i get there windiest day ever

[00:19:12] and this is our first day learning science because there's this thing called the magnet effect when you spin the ball and you throw it off of something and it goes long enough it takes a curve so there's a natural curve that happens

[00:19:23] y'all we took um 12 basketballs with us to do the shot i hit it on the 12th shot did you really they were getting ready to bring the second round of basketballs up i said don't worry about that i got this

[00:19:36] boom hit that shot it was that was crazy a little bit of pressure tell me the cameras are rolling it was really that you didn't have the lens cap on or something like that yeah yeah we were recording yeah i love that um

[00:19:51] out of all the places you've played and you've played basketball over the world what's your favorite place you've ever played uh for me i would say uh i'm uh the Dominican Republic okay i'm from the Dominican Republic my family who got to come and watch me

[00:20:05] but just to play in the Dominican Republic as a Harlem Globetrotter i was like what like i'm about to go off today like i'm passing a ball i'm about to try stuff i ain't never tried before but for me that's like one of the

[00:20:18] places that i enjoy playing as a Harlem Globetrotter i played there professionally before as a Harlem Globetrotter that was dope but to go back and to play in the Palacio it's just amazing as a Harlem Globetrotter my mom played there my

[00:20:35] dad played there my uncle played volleyball there so for me to play there as a as a Harlem Globetrotter i can't wait to go back awesome i want to go back that's amazing julien how about for you what's the best place to play for you besides target center

[00:20:50] my favorite place it's a couple man my hometown columbus ohio is always good playing when i went to televie the first time okay that was amazing paris france mozenbeek africa and usbekistan just like the weird places that people don't really know where they are

[00:21:08] yeah i look up and i'm here and i'm like wow this this is amazing but you get to see the world yeah oh yeah how awesome is that 37 countries so far and your schedule is packed i mean

[00:21:19] how do you keep up with it how do you stay grounded when you're constantly traveling and i mean we're everywhere online 100 cities it's a lot yeah each individual player will play about 218 games a year so we spread that out between three different units

[00:21:37] you know we got a east coast or west coast tour than a european tour but that's still a lot of games and you're traveling a lot right oh yeah constantly get worn out you i'll tell you one thing i miss my bed at

[00:21:49] home yeah i'm at i'm at a different city different hotel i'm like uh this don't feel like home i need to go back to the crib so uh yeah that's one thing for me i miss my bed uh i miss my family because we're you know

[00:22:05] basketball players and athletes but there's a lot of times we're wearing a robe we miss a lot of holidays as well so i get it i get it there is an nvc television show about the harlem globetrotters it is

[00:22:18] play it forward yep tell us about that what is that about i have not seen it i have to tell you but yeah what's it like it's our first return to prime time television in 40 years quite some time

[00:22:29] right for a year like and it's it's been blowing up it was eminominated yeah um last year and basically it's an opportunity for fans to connect with everything that we do off the court um because everyone knows what we're what we're known for and what we're

[00:22:42] capable of on the court but this is uh us showing what we do in every community um that we go out whether it's going to children's hospitals putting on a program called smile patrol where we go and try to make kids smile or going to

[00:22:55] elementary schools and inspiring kids to you know chase their dreams and um you know we have anti-bullying rallies just different things that we do on a day-to-day basis outside of what you see um on podcasts or

[00:23:09] or television it's us just being who we are thank you for doing that that's awesome and that's uh i encourage people to go watch that because like julia said you guys know what we do on the basketball

[00:23:21] court but we do some pretty cool stuff outside of the basketball court and we work with a lot of non-profits organizations so we going in going to different communities and see hey how us the Harlem Globe

[00:23:32] charters can help you guys assist you guys and they'll be like hey we're about to do this and i'm like okay so like you said it's on NBC and Peacock it's called a Harlem Globe Charters um Play For and then it's on Telemundo

[00:23:45] every Saturday it's called a Harlem Globe Charters Garanda Cola Comunidad I encourage people to go watch that awesome that's amazing yeah we will watch that thank you for so much we're going to be wrapping up here shortly

[00:23:56] but i'm going to do a quick kind of lightning round of questions with you guys let's do it no thoughts about it but just tell me what tell me your first thing that comes out of your uh that you think of right

[00:24:05] so favorite stadium you've ever played in Madison Square New York City of course uh shot and seen center in Columbus Ohio okay uh favorite city in the world Paris France New York City City of Dreams okay i love it uh your favorite pregame meal

[00:24:23] pizza ah i'm gonna go pizza too i like pizza your favorite post game meal oh pizza post game post game uh i don't know i'm gonna go with the Dominican food rice and beans and chicken with a little bit of tautonis i love it um

[00:24:40] your favorite charity you've been able to work with favorite charity we did something with the Susan B Anthony foundation we played basketball with pink basketballs one time awesome and it just it just was cool to bring

[00:24:53] awareness to breast cancer uh during that time yeah i love it i would agree with uh julian because i lost my sister to cancer look at me in cancer it wasn't breast cancer but just for us to go out there

[00:25:04] and share that moment with them it's pretty neat to make a difference i love that and finally if you could have a chance to make one trick shot in the world what would that be if there were no limits

[00:25:18] and before you do that our our plan is we're going to be building the nation's largest indoor water park right out here where in the near future right here this whole parking lot's gonna be a giant

[00:25:28] water park will you guys come back and do some shots in there once it's done we will be back most definitely but what is your dream shot that you'd like to do if you could do one anywhere oh man um i'm all about breaking world records right um

[00:25:40] there's this one shot at the cn tower that we were really close to orchestrating then covid happened and it would have been the tallest shot ever made um and it was very makeable very very makeable because it was an indoor shot okay and it turned into

[00:25:55] basically just a drop shot inside the cn tower is a uh a corridor okay and i was gonna i was gonna do a drop shot straight down i think it was over a thousand feet wow awesome how about you joey for me i'm gonna have to get back

[00:26:10] up to you on that one i don't know there's so much going through my head right now you ask that question he's talking about he's talking about he want to do a trick shot that high and and then we brought up the water park

[00:26:21] so i'm gonna get back to you on that one you're good i'm going we want to thank both of you for being here so much julie and joey it's been a pleasure and an honor having you here as our guest

[00:26:30] i'm gonna do a little closing message but while i do would you mind spinning and you mind doing some trick stuff wait wait wait we didn't get a chance ask you any questions yeah go ahead you can ask me any one favorite store in the

[00:26:41] mall of america oh favorite store oh my gosh i'm not gonna say it i'm gonna let you say it baking beddies oh i love baking beddys cookies you can't take her answer about the

[00:26:51] oh okay okay i would have said that but i'll go with um i'll go with um dsw i buy too many shows okay that's just really sad isn't it no no it's not i got way

[00:27:03] too many shoes back at home so that's good a favorite place to visit in minneapolis while we're here uh outside of mall of america i would say i love the sculpture garden which is

[00:27:15] downtown it's awesome you guys should go there it's awesome yeah i would say mine's also an outdoor one at mini ha ha falls mini ha ha falls yeah waterfall in downtown last but not least

[00:27:28] do you like hate or love juicy lucies i'm vegetarian so it's out of my realm love there we go love he was trying he was telling me about it how about you got you love him i like me i

[00:27:42] never tried that i never tried that he was trying to convince me you gotta have it right when you're in the twin city you gotta have it yeah all right yep all right thank you guys so

[00:27:50] much go ahead and spin away and um again we want to take this time to thank julian and joey for being our guests on so much more and for the harlem globetrotters for bringing them

[00:28:00] here with us today and for all of our guests watching listening to so much more we appreciate you turning in and tune in next week for another exciting show and with that thank you loren thank you

[00:28:12] joey thank you julian it's been awesome thanks for joining us thanks love you thanks thank you for tuning in to today's episode of so much more if you want to hear more be sure to subscribe to our podcast wherever you find your favorites including spotify apple or google

[00:28:27] podcast and you can also watch a video cast on youtube go to podcast dot malvamerica.com to leave a review ask a question or give us an idea for the show until next time thanks for listening

[00:28:40] so much more is presented by the bloomington convention and visitors bureau the official destination marketing organization for the city of bloomington minnesota before your next trip to malv america visit bloomingtonmn.org for answers to all your travel questions deals and packages for hotel stays and so much more